The Monday Morning Teaser

After the mid-term elections, I complained that “Republicans have a story to tell. We’re stuck with facts.” They have a mythic narrative I summed up as: “America is a city on a hill with barbarians at the gates.” Democrats answer with a bunch of small-scale policies: a higher minimum wage, increased access to health care, equal pay for women, and so on. It’s all good stuff but it doesn’t stir the blood, with the result that a lot of our voters forget to go out and vote.

I don’t think there’s anything inherently small-scale or non-mythic about liberalism, so I promised to spend some of my time in the wilderness thinking about what I called “the true story of America”.

If you thought that meant that in a few weeks I’d deliver the mythic liberal narrative wrapped up with a pretty bow, you have way too much faith in me. This week I’m posting a first tentative step in that direction, what I’m billing as “a rambling attempt to get to the heart of the progressive vision”. It’s called “Can We Share the World?” because it harks back to some of the ideas in a talk I gave several years ago called “Who Owns the World?” It’s intentionally incomplete and imperfect, and I’m putting it out there to draw comment and start discussion.

It’s also been kind of a busy week in the news, so the weekly summary is a little longer than usual. It discusses police killing black men and getting away with it, the surprisingly good November jobs report, why Hillary won’t announce her candidacy any time soon, and various religious-freedom stories that are out there.

When you’re writing a “rambling attempt” at something, it’s hard to predict exactly when it will be done. Look for “Can We Share the World?” maybe 11ish EST, and the weekly summary an hour or so later.